Chapter 1 When Things Come Looking for You

When you try to avoid certain things, it seems those things are even more proactive in approaching you. They don't understand what it means for a fallen flower to have feelings while the flowing water remains indifferent; they seem to think you're just playing hard to get.

As someone with a terminal case of mysophobia, being drenched in this kind of intensely fishy and rancid slime is incredibly depressing.

As the owner of a bookstore, having the shop that was just renovated not long ago be ruined by a large-scale leak is infuriating.

What makes Old Zhou feel a little dumbfounded is that it seems this is it.

There are no shrimp soldiers or crab generals barging in.

There are no roars of vengeful spirits.

No turtle prime minister has run out in front of him.

This one-hundred-percent opening act seems to also be the closing performance.

So, this is just to disgust him on purpose?

If you do this first, and then show yourself, and everyone fights as equals, that would be satisfying. But what is this?

…………

"Actually, they didn't come specifically to disgust us. This should be a trigger array, with a bit of a suicidal boom feeling."

Xu Qinglang, wearing a mask, stood in front of Zhou Ze, keeping a distance of about two meters, with undisguised disgust in his eyes.

He had just cleaned fish, but he didn't have as strong a smell as Old Zhou did.

"Boss, you're amazing. You guessed early on that this guy was a problem, so you told me to just go up and punch him without saying a word, right?"

Yingying looked at Zhou Ze with admiration, while preparing new clothes for him.

"Hehe."

Boss Zhou smiled. At this moment, he didn't even have the mood to enjoy flattery.

"Gold sand is hidden in the fish's belly. Actually, this isn't sending money. This gold sand is originally part of the material for activating the array. Those bamboo slips are a bit like the original images when PPT is played, and the zombie nails may be the means to carry out targeted attacks on the zombies in the house after the array is activated.

From a design point of view, it's indeed good, but..."

Xu Qinglang glanced at Yingying and said, "Just like Yingying said just now, the person came to the door and said he wanted to find you, probably wanting to wait for you to come over and detonate himself when he saw you. Who knew you directly asked Yingying to beat him to death.

The power of the array, which could have been called a missile, was directly weakened into fireworks."

"Please don't desecrate fireworks."

Zhou Ze reminded him.

"Okay, sure."

"Also, what were you doing earlier? What's the use of analyzing it so well now?"

"I'm just being wise after the event." Xu Qinglang took a few steps back and said, "Do you want to take a shower?"

"Yingying, go clean up a room in the internet cafe across the street. I'll stay there tonight. Also, find a way to clean this place up. We're a bookstore, but now it smells even worse than a fresh food market."

"Okay, Boss."

Boss Zhou changed his clothes and walked out of the bookstore. He planned to take a shower in the internet cafe across the street, otherwise, he would still get this smell after taking a shower in the bookstore.

Xu Qinglang also came out with him.

"How is the Deadpool doing?"

"It's okay. I took care of him, but it's a bit painful. He's still recovering. There are no big problems, and the small problems can be solved slowly.

Part of his body has turned into vines to guard our bookstore. This time the bookstore was cursed, and he was the first to bear the brunt. It was a sudden loss.

By the way, Hei Xiaoniu went out to buy medicine."

"Buy medicine?"

"Pesticide."

"Alright."

"Haven't you figured out who did this? They must have a grudge against you, right?" Xu Qinglang asked.

"I always..."

"Treat people with kindness."

"Not bad, you've learned to answer before I finish."

"Hehe."

"I'll go take a shower first. After I take a shower..." Boss Zhou stretched and then smelled the fishy smell on his body again. "I don't care who did it, but that guy is dead."

Xu Qinglang shrugged. After watching Zhou Ze cross the road, Xu Qinglang took off his mask and lit a cigarette.

"It doesn't seem like they're trying to kill anyone. It's more like... playing a joke?

But this joke isn't funny at all. Old Zhou should be really annoyed this time."

Xu Qinglang shook his head.

Honestly, he misses Lawyer An a little now.

I guess Old Zhou feels the same way.

If An Buqi were here, he could handle many of the things that have happened recently.

Of course, now that Old An is not here, we can only rely on ourselves.

This array is a bit interesting, but I don't know who designed it.

He threw the cigarette butt on the ground.

He stepped on it with his shoe.

Xu Qinglang took a deep breath and reopened the door of the bookstore.

"Alright, let's clean up!"

…………

After using shower gel seven times, Zhou Ze came out of the bathroom. Yingying had already prepared the clothes he needed to change into and put them here. The clothes he had taken off earlier had been taken away by Yingying to be washed.

Too lazy to blow-dry his hair, Zhou Ze put on his clothes and walked to the window, silently taking out a cigarette.

"Boss, Boss?"

At this time, the old daoist walked in from the door and ran over to Zhou Ze as soon as he saw him.

"My god, Boss, I just got back and found out our store was attacked by biological weapons?"

Zhou Ze had a headache. He didn't want to recall the previous scene now, otherwise, he would have to take another shower.

"Boss, could it be the person who sent the package last time?"

"Huh?"

Zhou Ze was stunned.

"It's the two dolls from last time, sent by that person. This time, it was also him, right? Yes, it can only be him. First, he sent dead people here as a warning, and then he used a suicidal boom attack. This is a declaration, and next, he will..."

"It wasn't him."

It was difficult for Zhou Ze to explain the identity of the person who sent the package last time to the old daoist.

However, Zhou Ze was sure of one thing. The person who played this trick this time shouldn't be that person.

With that person's temper, personality, and identity, how could he do such petty things?

Moreover, that person didn't need to do this.

Zhou Ze had previously kicked heads with the silver mask and the red-bellyband doll in a special space.

But not long after, Qing's teammates were packaged and sent over.

This was enough to confirm that the person who talked to him and kicked the "ball" was definitely not Qing's teammates.

Who else can't speak and is so childlike?

He's simply as mischievous as a monkey…

Or, he's just a monkey!

"If it wasn't him, then who could it be?" The old daoist originally thought he had grasped the truth, but he was directly denied by his own boss.

"After the bookstore is cleaned up, let's start investigating. This time, no matter what, I will catch the prankster."

The old daoist nodded and said to Zhou Ze, "Then Boss, you can rest here. I'll go back and help with the cleaning."

The old daoist could feel the boss's anger now and felt that he should be more disciplined at this time and not talk too much. At the same time, the old daoist also knew how picky his boss was about cleanliness.

Hehe, that guy better not show up again, or he'll be in real trouble.

…………

Cleaning up was actually very fast, but the ventilation problem in the bookstore couldn't be solved so quickly. It was estimated that the bookstore would still be filled with a faint fishy smell for the next week.

Maybe, we can only wait for Deadpool to recover and use his ability to make flowers bloom all over the bookstore to completely eliminate that smell.

Therefore, dinner tonight was also eaten at the internet cafe.

The originally planned all-fish feast naturally had no follow-up. Several stir-fried dishes plus a tomato and egg drop soup. Perhaps considering that Zhou Ze's appetite might not be very good tonight, Xu Qinglang made the dinner lighter.

After eating a little, Zhou Ze put down his chopsticks.

Xu Qinglang also put down his chopsticks and picked up an ancient book from the tea table next to him and said:

"Do you remember the symbol in the fish's belly?"

Zhou Ze was a little surprised and also a little happy, and said:

"What, you found something so quickly?"

"It's okay, I can only say that I found the source of that symbol. It's quite remote. I checked for a long time to find its origin."

"Tell me."

"This is a handprint pattern. It doesn't come from Maoshan or Longhu Mountain or our mainstream Taoist handprints. In fact, it should be a Buddhist handprint.

But this lineage should have declined long ago, and even disappeared."

Hearing this, the first thing Zhou Ze thought of was the baldy monk, but the baldy monk had already been struck by lightning and died, so there was definitely no follow-up.

It couldn't be that the baldy monk's fellow disciples came to take revenge, right?

But the baldy monk didn't seem to have a sect. Even if he did, with the baldy monk's temper, his relationship with his sect must be very bad.

"As far as I know, that lineage has always been very niche. The only record is that this lineage contributed a lot when Jianzhen traveled east, and finally helped Jianzhen successfully cross to the east. Buddhism is still very popular in the island country, so it may still be developing there."

"Japanese?"

Zhou Ze frowned.

"I'm not sure, but I can only find so much. There are too few known clues now. Actually, we don't need to worry. I think since the other party played this trick, it means he will definitely show his face.

By the way, do you know how to make this handprint?"

Xu Qinglang asked with a look of eagerness.

It was obvious that this question was deliberately for you to answer.

Ask me quickly, ask me quickly,

I want to answer you, I want to answer you.

"Reason tells me that I should say I don't want to know, but sensibility makes me very curious."

Xu Qinglang smiled.

"I'll show you."

He lifted his left elbow with his right hand,

He swung his left fist forward,

And then,

He raised his middle finger.

Zhou Ze looked at it for three seconds and said:

"Let me try to learn it and see if I'm doing it right."

As he spoke,

Boss Zhou also raised his hand to Xu Qinglang.

Fuck you!